Page 96 of Captive Vows
“The fucking Vipers,” I growled, grabbing my gun and hurrying out of the car to chase after the men.
It was another ambush.
Another attack on Gabriella.
On our child’s life.
Sprinting to get there in time, I shouted into my phone, ordering more men to surround the facility and protect the love of my life at all costs.
I wouldn’t lose her.
I just couldn’t, not after all we’d been through to be at this tentative potential for peace and love.
36
GABRIELLA
It was different to sit here in a real waiting room to be seen. All my other checkups were done in the privacy of my bedroom. Luka hadn’t hesitated to start medical care and supervision, going to the extreme of hiring private doctors as soon as he discovered I was pregnant.
Seated in an uncomfortable chair in this medical office that was an auxiliary building on the hospital’s campus, I almost felt like a normal person again. Not a lover of a Mafia boss who got special treatment, but an ordinary, standard citizen, expected to wait like anyone else.
No other patients were in here at the time. Luka had requested that I not be waiting for long. Still, he’d shown how much he wanted me to feel pampered like that.
Maybe I should get used to feeling like a queen.
I rubbed my hand over my stomach, wondering how much longer it would be until I could get this over with. This large, I was just plain uncomfortable. This far along, I was simply unable to find a good spot to breathe fully, not feel the urge to pee, avoid heartburn, and also spare myself from that sciatica pain.
“Impatient?” Alexsei guessed.
He sat next to me while another Dubinin guard stood near the door. It seemed like overkill. No other people were in here since Luka ordered the doctors to clear their schedule for me. But with how my last two times of leaving the Dubinin mansion had gone—my audition and that time Luka took me out to brunch at that resort—it wasn’t a bad idea to ramp up security.
If it stayed like this, where I’d be a target anytime I reentered society, I’d never want to think about “freedom” again.
So far, so good, right?
No one was bursting in here to shoot at me.
Yet.
I shook my head to dispel the thoughts.
Have faith.
Luka loved me. He wanted to marry me. It was sufficient to convince me he would protect me no matter what. His nephew was the security expert, and he was right next to me.
“You’re not impatient?” he asked, interpreting the shake of my head as a negative reply. He chuckled. “Because if I remember those last weeks before Misha was born, my wife had been miserable.”
I smiled slightly. Now that I knew he’d had a wife and fathered a son, I was excited to learn more about them. About all of them. My views of the Dubinins being a family, notthefamily, were changing my opinions so quickly.
I hated that I’d assumed too much for so long.
“Oh, I’m impatient.” I sighed, then winced as more tension kicked in.
“Are you okay?” He watched me closely, worried.
“Yeah. I mean, no. I’m huge.”
“Are you having contractions?” He glanced at how tightly I gripped the armrest as I rode through them.
